The present invention relates to a supply device for a flash tube. It is used in the optical pumping of lasers and particularly iodine compound lasers.
A preionization has already been proposed for improving the supply conditions of flash tubes used for optical pumping. In the prior art, this preionization was generally obtained by high frequency excitation.
However, such a procedure has a number of disadvantages. Firstly, it requires the use of a winding wound around the flash tube or located in the vicinity thereof and supplied by an auxiliary voltage source. This winding leads to interference to the optical elements located in the immediate vicinity of the flash tube. In addition, this procedure needs an additional supply source, which is not of the same type as that of the main discharge. Finally, although this procedure is satisfactory in connection with the ignition of the flash tube, it does not significantly modify the excitation efficiency.